


I Hated You at First Sight

by CovenBossSteve



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gay Panic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lumity is platonic, References to domestic control, Strong Language, references to death, they're just friends here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26174761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CovenBossSteve/pseuds/CovenBossSteve
Summary: Eda had been suffering from a strange feeling of emptiness as of late. She chooses to ignore these feelings, hoping they'll go away. But what happens when she meets up with an old classmate, more accurately rival, of hers at Luz's parent-teacher conference? And what happens when this contact causes some old feelings to arise.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne/Karen Blight, Luz Noceda/Willow Park, Odalia Blight/Eda Clawthorne
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	1. Empty

She walked towards the aging house, her stride lacking the usual attitude and confidence that radiated off of every action she took throughout the day as the bubble around her held the downpour of acid rain at bay. Each drop slowly slipping in between and swirling around the bits of cold dirt and debris that made up the ground she walked.  
Placing her hand on the old doorknob, flinching ever so slightly from its frozen cold feel, Eda crept inside the infamous Owl House, the door inching open from her light touch. Laying down on the couch inside, as she poked her head inside, curled up and snoring, were Luz and King, a duo of folks that if most Eda people asked about she would simply refer to as her roommates. Her desire not to disrupt their adorable little slumber, however, extended beyond the door and into her walk as she slowed her pace down even more before moving her way across the boarded floors of their home.  
She moved on upstairs to her room, deciding rather quickly to spend what little time she had left before her body inevitably demanded she collapses on recounting the strange feelings of the day behind her.  
Emptiness.  
She felt empty inside today. A kind she knew she had felt before but couldn't quite capture its origin. Moving beyond that, however, Eda son realized she had been feeling this rare form of emptiness for the past couple of days. The past few weeks, even.  
Why?  
Why was she feeling like this all of a sudden? It had crept up on her so slowly that pinning down exactly where it had begun was difficult, if not straight-up impossible. Every bit of Eda desperately desired to explore these feelings more, with how little free time she knew she’d have within the coming days. But the alarming loud crack of her back she saw as a good sign that it was about time to go ahead and allow sleep’s inescapable jaws to overtake her once more. And so after a quick change of clothes and a check up on her little ones, Eda settled into her nest and allowed sleep to take her for the night.

Eda was welcomed to the next morning with the quiet sounds of kitchenware and bickering coming from downstairs. Out of combination of curiosity and fear of the house burning down, she forced herself to sit up, not even remotely ready to take on another godforsaken day. A day that. while not now, she knew would eventually be plagued once again by that horrible feeling of emptiness.  
Walking past the closed blinds and dirtied windows, Eda placed her hand down on the handle of her room door, breathing out once or twice, before heading out. Quickly escaping the dark halls that made up her room, which seemed like the gates of Heaven in comparison, and making it to the stairs, Eda was greeted with the same noises of before, said noises getting louder and louder as she drew closer. Though, luckily, the bickering she had overheard earlier seemed to have subsided into the occasional one-liner and sly remark instead. That, and a smell so delicious and entrancing that any hesitation she had before was gone now as she hurried on downstairs, hoping to find some way to quench the watering of her mouth with whatever feast was being cooked up downstairs.  
What she found, instead, was Luz. Luz Noceda. Eda’s human apprentice, wouldn’t you believe it. She watched as the light from the kitchen window bathed the kitchen and Luz’s cooking in a golden like glow, though Luz seemed to pay little mind to this as she placed down what Eda guessed were the final parts of the meal on the table before looking towards Eda herself. A huge smile spreading across her face before yelping “, Eda!” Her small body traveling at speeds that Eda was almost positive would be illegal in most places as her arms stretched out and eventually caught the Owl Lady in a hug”. Where were you yesterday? When I got back home last nighy you were just gone.” The look of confusion on Luz’s face hurt Eda’s heart to see. They both must’ve known the\is mistake would happen eventually, with how busy she had been lately, but it still clearly hit Luz to know that Eda had forgotten to tell her she was going somewhere for the afternoon. Gulping down her shame, Eda proceeded to try and explain herself.  
”Hey, you know how it is, kid. There’s a lot going on right now. A bunch of once in a year, once in a lifetime, and once at 12:32 pm plants have been sprouting up the last few weeks. Momma’s gotta keep her edge on the competition. I can’t just let a bunch of freshmen get them before me, they’re going to end up scamming people with them. And that’s my shtick!” A small chuckle left Luz’s lips from Eda’s little show of drama and theatrics, which, to be fair, wasn’t exactly Eda’s original plan, but if it helped bring a smile back to her little girl’s face then hey, it was a win in her book. Luz looked back at Eda before saying with a smile “, I get it, Eda. Really I do. It’s just when you disappear like that I get worried, ya know? I don’t want to lose you again.” Eda was about ready to try her best to comfort the kid, but she was cut off as Luz asked “, Can you just promise to tell me you’re leaving next time?”  
It was a simple request, but one that clearly meant a lot to the kid. The idea alone of Luz feeling scared and alone could easily keep Eda up at night, the thought of her being the cause of it, well, rest assured telling Luz anything even resembling no was out of the question “. Of course, kid. I’m sorry for worrying you.” Luz smiled even brighter than before, if that was even physically possible, as she someone managed to speak through it with “, Thank you, and hey! I thought since you were out late last night and you’ve been working really hard lately, Eda must be hungry, So, ta-da! Breakfast, human style!” Luz turned her body, doing a little, as she called, jazz hands gesture towards the table of food in the room beside them.  
The food had a light spiral of smoke rising from its surprisingly well-cooked flesh, a plate of bacon, eggs, and apple blood littering the table and filling Eda with the urge to endlessly gorge it till either her stomach or heart gave in”. Whichever comes first,” she whispered out loud, more than ready to rush to the table and fill her empty stomach, had it not been for Luz grabbing onto the sleeve of her nightshirt  
“Wait,” she said “, before we get to eating, there’s something I need to ask you.” Eda turned back towards her kid, slightly annoyed as she snarked back “, You’re holding me back from a banquet of food right now, kid. This better be worth it.” "It won’t be for you, but, uh, look, I was hoping you’d be willing to come to something with me.” Consider Eda’s attention grabbed at this point with how anxious Luz was at this point. She even pulled up her little, how does she put it? Cat hoodie! Pulling on its strings as she sunk deeper into its cotton depths while she rocked back and forth. That was never a good sign.  
Eda let out a sigh before placing the palms of her hands down gently on Luz’s shoulders “. Alright, Luz, I can tell this is legitimately and actually, important to you, and not ‘I want to see a 1000-year-old crying birch tree in the middle of acid rain’ kind of important. So tell me, what is it?” Luz looked down at the ground for a moment before stepping out of Eda’s motherly grasp, reaching into her cat hoodie to pull out a dark blue flier “. There’s a parent-teacher conference at Hexside soon where all the kids' parents come with their, you know, kids and meet the teachers and school staff and just get a general idea of how the students are doing in class. And well, you’re kind of the closest thing I have to a parent here so I was just wondering if you’d, maybe, be willing to come with me?”  
Eda looked at Luz, a look of pure shock and disbelief. That was it? Really? Huh “. So you just want me to come meet your teachers?” It seemed like Luz was just about ready to burst from happiness at the potential outcome Eda was hinting it “. Uh, yeah? Yeah! That’s it!” Luz was absolutely ecstatic at this point, her bubble of joy growing quickly and without restraint, up until it was subsequently popped as Eda walked on over and slumped down on the nearby couch, mouth agape as she groaned at the ceiling.  
“Authority, gross!.” Luz placing her hands back on her strings, ready to sink back into her cotton cave “. When is it?” Luz looked over at Eda, a look of confusion dotting every millimeter of her eye. “Um, Monday. Do you, um, think you’ll be able to make it?” she asked as her earlier excitement began to boil up again “. Well, let’s see. If it’s on Monday, and. Today is like, Tuesday, right?” Luz responded ”, It’s Wednesday, Eda.” "I was close, cut me a break.” Despite the humour in Eda's voice, Luz at this point couldn't help but to start looking arounf literally everywhere in the house at this point that wouldn't have Eda in the frame. To call what Eda was giving off right now as mixed signals would be an understatement “. Will you be able to make it?” Luz asked again. Eda looked over to Luz from what could only be described as her total ownership like position of the couch, opening her mouth with a smile before responding “, if it’s really as important to you as you say, then come on, how could old mama Eda say no, huh?”  
Luz stood inhumanly still for a bit, long enough, in fact, for Eda to be left genuinely asking the question of ‘Did I break her?’ Although this thought process was quickly cut short as Luz began to start bouncing up and down before tackling Eda in an even greater hug shouting “, Oh thank you thank you thank you, Eda! I love you!” Eda, through a chuckle, humoured her little human apprentice by joining in on her little parallel arm thing “. I love you too kid, now can we please eat, I’m going to starve if I don't chew on something sooner rather than later.” Luz bounced out the embrace with, again, somehow, an even bigger smile spread across her face “. Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot about that for a moment, Um, let’s eat,” and by them she meant Eda. Eda ate, and that’s it. But that was alright, Luz was a little too distracted to eat anything besides an egg or two as her mind raced with plans for Monday.

The weekend had come and gone, as did the Monday at Hexside. Luz and Eda were walking side by side along the repetitive, stone patterned walkway leading into Hexside. Students and parents lined up and entered the building with about as much excitement as a funeral, and considering this school, that possibility wasn’t entirely off the table.  
Once she and the kid were a fair bit inside of the school walls, Luz quickly turned her head towards Eda”. The meetings don’t start for a little bit still, so I’m going to go see if I can find Gus and Willow to pass some time. Okay? Love you, Eda!” Luz shouted out as she was already making her way down the halls “. Love you too, kid,” Eda responded with a half-assed wave of her hand “. Now that she’s gone, I wonder if one of these chumps is dumb enough to buy these useless frog Lillies.” Eda began scanning the body of students, parents, and teachers around her, excitedly looking for her next target who, eventually setting her eyes on a tall, green-skinned student in a white suit “. Teens. Not my usual crowd but hey, I’m sure if I just tell them it grants wishes or something they’ll buy it. Only one way to find out.” But before she was able to enact her illegal, and morally questionable deal, she was suddenly caught off guard by the call of a voice that was all too familiar “. Edalyn?” Eda turned on her heel in response, directing herself to the source of the sound, her voice not even half attempting to hide its malice “. You."


	2. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz's after school study session with the Blight's youngest heir forces Eda to confront decades of pent up emotion as she finally comes into close contact with an old friend of hers.

“Karen Blight. Long time no see,” Eda mumbled loudly, eyelids slitting closed to a paper thin degree. Years of repressed anger and hate transmitting through the small gesture, from Eda’s eyes into Mrs. Blight’s very core. She swayed a little, forward and back, clutching her purse as she cleared her throat “. It’s been-” “Thirty-some years, yeah,” Eda cut her off without even a hint of expression to her tone “. Yes, uh, correct,” Mrs. Blight responded after a crushingly awkward pause that had forced her to start fidgeting with her purse, slowing opening and closing one of its smaller zippers just by an inch or so “, well I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you here of all places, with your whole ‘stick it to the system’ attitude and what have you. Ya know?” Karen finished the last third or so of her sentence off with a rush, making the ill-fated decision of closing it all off with a smile that forced didn’t even do justice ". Yeah,” Eda responded, placing heavy emphasis on each and every syllable of the word “, right.”   
No more conversation was attempted between the two parties for about another two minutes, the duo choosing to instead radiate their nervous and silently furious energies respectively through stiff, unmoving stances. The silence refused to break itself, so, Karen decided to speak “. I’m sorry.” Eda’s anger didn’t disappear, but one could easily see that there was now a large sprinkle of surprise riddled within the mixture of her gaze as well “. What?” she asked ‘. For everything that happened with you and I,” the green-haired witch answered, not quite catching Eda’s eyes “, I know that there's simply no way to properly or truly make up for everything I did to you back then, everything I've done to you now, but maybe, if you'll let me, I could take you out some time so I, may chance, give you a more formal apology. What do you say?”   
She lifted up her hand, slowing forwarding it towards Eda as her palm opened, kindly inviting Karen’s fellow witch in for a formal handshake. But Eda just stood. Stood there for a good moment or two staring down at the outstretched hand before her. Before she even knew it, her own hand was rising up, ready to accept the gesture. However, Eda shut this action down in an instant. She instead turned on her heel and looking at Karen from a sideways view before starting a little speech of her own “, Nah I’m good, thanks.” ”What?” Karen pulled her hand back as she shouted her response, confusion, and a hint of hurt fueling her movements now. Her arms and her legs shaking ever so slightly, and her hand slowly lynching back “. What do you mean?” she muttered, the response in her mind being a sad, muddled mess of ideas that still yearned to leave her head “. But,” she tried again, and again, failing to properly communicate her thoughts to the gray-haired woman before her.  
Karen was lucky this time, however, as Eda herself wasn’t quite done talking yet, as she snarkily continued “, Oh don’t give me that crap, Blight. You really expect me to just fall down on my knees and eat up your prestigious, little apology off a golden platter?” she asked, deciding to entertain herself with a mock, little upper-class accent placed on the last few words of her question. She continued “. You know where I live, witch, so if you were really as sorry as you claim to be now, princess, then I don’t see why you couldn’t have dropped by for at least a minute in the last thirty-some years since I've seen ya. But now, I know your royal ass probably isn’t used to the word no, maybe you haven't even heard of it, and I’m sorry I have to be the first to hit ya with it, but this whole thing,” Eda exclaimed, twisting her finger and wrist in small, quick circles while she pointed at the Blight before her “, it ain’t working for me. So, now that we’re on the same page here, I’ll hopefully catch you later, cuz I got a round of some friendly human hunting to get to right about now.”   
Eda didn’t even look back at the Blight before completing the aforementioned heel turn, slowly making her way down the hall as her old, baggy suit bounced and shifted on top of her body.   
Karen didn’t really know what to do about Eda at that point. She took a few steps forward a couple every so often, but she retreated back to her original position each time without fail, opening and closing her zipper so rapidly at this point that any passerby would be surprised that she or her purse hadn’t caught fire yet. Luckily, or sadly depending on who you ask, the zipper broke off well before either of those scenarios could happen. Tilting her head down, Karen finally decided to let out a breath as began work on another zipper, walking down the halls towards Amity’s first class as she did.

Eda walked around the halls she had seen Luz running down just a few minutes prior in hopes of finding the kid. Although pretty much every part of Eda knew that Luz could very well be on the roof of the school with her friends right now with that kind of time, and as dangerous as that thought was, it brought a smile to the aging witch’s face.  
Seeing Luz click so well with the little posse of friends brought her back to her own years atnHexside before she got banned for some, as she saw it ‘, lame ass safety concerns.’ Her nostalgia trip was cut short though with the sound of Luz and co.’s unmistakable laughter coming from a room nearby. Upon heading towards said sound and looking up, Eda soon realized that the kids were, hopefully, hanging out in the Abomination classroom “. Huh, you know I’m pretty sure I’m still banned from this room,” she mumbled out loud as she entered the room. And, wouldn’t you know it, there they were, Gus, Willow, Luz, and Teachers' Pet Blight version. 2.0, all sat on the floor with one another. In a circle? That was Eda’s best guess.   
Suddenly, Luz looked over to the doorway, the shock on her face spreading quickly to the rest of her body as she doubled over, face first, into the floor. Quickly regaining some level of her composure moments before rushing at Eda with confusion “. Hey Eda! What are you doing here?” Luz managed to force out despite her critical lack of sufficient oxygen “. Well it’s been about half an hour, maybe, I didn’t actually check. Has it?" Eda inquired as she scratched her lion’s mane of hair “. Yeah, it has. Kind of lost track of time.” ”Eh it’s fine kid, I can barely tell time so I don’t have much room to complain. Anyways, I want to get this boot chugging fest over with as soon as possible so chop chop, kiddo. Let’s meet these walking spider nests so we go home as soon as possible.” Eda smiled right back at the glow on Luz’s face as the young, human witch replied “, Okay. I’ll catch you later, my witches,” Luz declared as she shot out an unnecessary amount of rounds of finger guns to her friends before catching up with Eda.   
The classic pair of mentor and apprentice walked together to Luz’s first class. The two were just about ready to round the corner when the younger witch suddenly grabbed onto Eda’s sleeve “. Hey, Eda?” she asked looking up to her teacher. Eda stopped dead in her tracks, twisting her back a bit to help get a better view of her pupil as to give her the proper level attention she deserved “. What’s up, kiddo?” she asked, opening up one of her eyes with a quizzical look aiding in letting Luz know she had Eda’s full attention “. There’s a huge abomination test coming up soon, so Amity may be coming over a lot more than usual to help me study. I knew you wouldn’t mind but I just wanted to give you a heads up. Ya know? Is that alright?” Luz finished, looking at Eda with hopeful eyes. Eda just smiled as she roughly patted Luz’s back before responding with “, No skin off my back, kid. Now can we please get this whole ordeal over with. I’m scared if I spend too much more time in this place I’m gonna start doing math for fun.” Luz just chuckled as she walked on “. Yeah, let’s go.”

Luz and Eda were resting up on the couch as the two waited for Amity to arrive. Luz was re-rereading the newest Azura book that her mentor had managed to find, occasionally acting out a scene or two she repeatedly read over and over with some silly voice she made up on the spot for each character. Meanwhile Eda silently judged her apprentice for actively reading and enjoying a book of all things. A small but effective way for her to help distract herself from the returning feeling of emptiness in her chest from the days prior.  
A loud knocking and strange lack of the usual “hoot hoot” from the door was evidence enough for them to know that Amity had finally arrived “. I got it, kid. I can see you’re busy nerding out there,” Eda remarked as she stood up and made her way to the door. There wasn’t anything special about her walk, nor was the way she opened the door. All she did was weakly swing it open it and shout “Hey teacher's pet! Right on time, I think, as usual-” Eda’s eyes looked over the girl with the brown rooted hair, her eyes now, instead, falling onto a much taller witch whose head was dawned with a much lighter green colored hair and look of a silent nervous breakdown filling her features“. Okay, then. Why exactly is she here?” Eda asked, remnants of yesterday’s anger flowing back to her tongue.   
Even though she wasn’t even looking at her, the building rage making up Eda’s sight towards her mother scared Amity more than she’d like to admit. Taking after her mother, Amity started playing with the zippers on the small, kitten-like purse she was holding onto with increasing desperation for comfort until she broke “. I’ll leave you two to figure that out. Luz hey!” Amity shouted and whispered, somehow at the same time, immediately shouldering Eda out of the way to get into the house, stiff as a statue, as soon as the words left her lips. Eda barely seemed to have even registered Amity’s antics, her eyes continuing to stare down the eldest Blight before her.   
Eda’s heel was digging into the ground at this point, pushing and taking control over the dirt as it burrowed its way down into the ground, securing the gray haired witch’s position. Back straightened. Arms crossed. And that unmistakable look of rage never leaving her face throughout it all. Karen was trying her best to keep eye contact with her old friend, but the pure fury hidden within her posture made it difficult to do anything but stare down at the surrounding trees and brush “. So,” Karen attempted to start, not sure where to start “. So,” Eda mirrored. The two severed friends once more stood in awkward silence, each seconds feeling like a minute, and each minute a year.  
At some point it must have all become too much for Karen who abruptly suggested “, Perhaps we should go inside so we can thoroughly discuss, well, all of this, I suppose?” Karen finally managed to tear her eyes up from the ground to look directly into Eda’s, which really didn’t give the elder Blight much of an idea of what the other woman’s response would be. So she was forced to just sit there and wait, hoping for an answer that didn’t involve being thrown into the monster-infested ocean just off to the side of the them “. Yeah, I think that’d be best,” Eda’s sudden response came as a surprise to Karen, though not unwelcomed. Eda opened the door behind her up all the way and welcomed Mrs. Blight in with a great amount of physical hesitance made clear by her body. Karen walked into the old building, Eda not too far behind.   
The older pair slowly and quietly sat down on the couch, Eda in particular making as much distance between the two of them as physically possible. Karen’s movements, however, simply involved the Blight hunching over, clasping her hands together as she played with her thumbs. Letting out a long breath that reeked of tension, Karen began to speak “. So uh, I’m sure you’re likely wondering why exactly I showed up here with my dear Amity, correct.” She looked to Eda who offered nothing more than a mere nod in response “. Right. Well, and this isn’t in any way meant to be a personal attack towards you, but. Okay, how do I say this? Um. I’m not used to this area, and while I know that you would and can protect my daughter just fine from any danger that may or may not arise around here, I just feel safer being here. Ya know? Near her, especially since she’s going to be spending far longer stretches of time here a lot more often. I hope you can understand, Edalyn.” Karen looked to her old friend with a gleam of childish hope. Eda sat up from the slouching position she had taken up halfway through Karen’s explanation, copying Karen’s hunch for just a brief moment before standing up, and cracking her back “. Yeah I get it. Maternal instincts can be a real bitch at times, huh Blight?”   
Eda bellowed out a laugh at her own joke. It helped turn what was a subpar joke at best into an absolutely infectious gag that Karen soon followed, breaking her usually perfect composure as she broke into a giggling mess of a witch. Karen’s laugh was equally as infectious and caused Eda to break into another round of heavy laughter and snorts, and the cycle just continued on from there. Eventually the two managed to prevent themselves from consuming any more time within the endless laughing circle that they had made for themselves.   
Eda had sat back down on the couch, arm slouched over the rest and her foot loosely sat upon the nearby table. In heavy contrast, Mrs. Blight continued to sit with her back straight and hands clasped in her lap, But this contrast was far more natural, comfortable even, compared to how they were earlier.  
“Oh, just like good old times, ey Karry?” Eda chuckled to herself, looking at her old friend with a huge smile on her face and a hand raised to gesture towards the person sat on the other end of the couch. A mild blush managed to break its way onto Karen’s face to accompany her response “, Yeah.” The response was left floating alone in the air without a comeback. While just half an hour prior this would’ve been expected, Karen had hoped that maybe some walls between them were beginning to break down, but that hope was shattered with one single question from Eda “, You and I work well together, Karry. You’re cool, I’m cooler by a pretty good margin, but we worked," she paused for a moment, the ticking of a far off clock filling in the dead space, building up and up and up until the old witch finished ". So then, why did you leave?”  
Silence. Back once more to the hell of awkward silence. There really wasn’t a good response that Karen could give the Owl Lady as the question wasn’t just referring to one single choice made back when they were kids. The question entailed years of purposeful distancing on Karen’s part from Eda. Years of ignored letters and invites. Years without an apology or even a simple ‘I’m sorry.’ Years of abandonment from a friendship that, at one point, had meant the world to Karen. So she decided to just brave it out, and be honest “. I don’t know.” She wasn’t sure if that was the best way to have phrased that answer, or if it was even in the ballpark of appropriate responses, but it was all she could give in that moment.  
And Karen wasn’t too far off with her worries, as a feeling of total disappointment washed over Eda's face “. Yes, you do,” Eda responded with a tone so cold it froze Karen in place, even if it was just for a moment before she quickly let out a surprised “What?” Eda looked back at her old friend “. We both know why you left, Karry. I just wasn’t one of the select few, was I? The moment I became even a bit of a problem, the moment your perfect little royal image was in danger, you turned your back on me and started hanging out with that kiss ass Chadley and his gang of suck-ups! They were rich after all! They followed the rules! Unlike Eda the delinquent! Good old Lord Calamity! All the sleepovers, hangouts, the late-night walks. All of it!” Eda was breaking up at this point, making no attempt to hide it from the Blight before her how much this all had been hurting her “, None of it meant anything, did it?”  
Karen was stuck, frozen, in her current position. All she could do was look at Eda, tears beginning to stain her eyes too words failing her as well. But Eda wasn’t done “. But that wasn’t enough for Queen Karen, oh no! How could it? Ruining your own friendships didn’t fuel that shit-eating grin of yours enough, No! No you had to go right ahead to force your daughter to do the exact same thing. Ripped the only friend she had right from her innocent, small, little trusting hands and forced her to carry and walk around with the burden of a friend group made up entirely of self-centered, spoiled brats! So let me ask you something, Karen. Let me ask you one thing. Are you proud of yourself? Because after all this you better have at least gotten something out of it all! So, did you? Are you fucking happy?”   
Karen had nothing left to say. Eda had stared her down and called her out for years upon years of actions and choices that had made her and her daughter’s lives what they were to this day, and that was far from a good thing. So Karen decided to keep up the tradition she had decided to keep going as of late. She looked at Eda and just answered honestly “, No, No I’m not. I have never once felt proud, happy, anything for any of that.” Eda, whom Karen had expected to completely explode at this point, relaxed ever so slightly, clearly but cautiously interested to see where her old friend’s response was going. So Karen continued “, I hurt you, Eda. I hurt you because I truly believed there was no way in God’s name I’d be able to stand up for myself to my parents. So if they told me I couldn’t see you anymore, I truly believed I couldn’t. They told me I had no choice but to marry Chad. Chad of all people! So I believed, with all my heart, that I had to. And once I moved on from them, I couldn’t even tell Chad no. He boxed the twins and Amity into the same elitist friend group that my parents forced me into, and I went right along with it. When he saw Amity was growing up to have his chestnut hair, he demanded she be made like her siblings, color-coded, if you will, and I didn’t believe I stop it. I went right along with it because I was scared of what he might do to me or the kids. But those are just excuses. At his core, Chad is a pushover, poke back once and he’ll fall apart. But despite knowing that deep down I went along with all his shit. I hurt my kids, Eda. I hurt Amity. I’ve done damage to them that I can never undo. I’ve done damage to them that they’ll never forgive me for, and I hope they don’t forgive me for it. They should know that everything I did was not, under any circumstances, okay. But,” the woman reached into her bag and pulled out a bag, slipping her hand in slowly and carefully grabbing onto a small bag of chestnut hair dye “, I’m trying to do better. I want to do better from here on out. I’m going to show Amity the dye once we get home as, you know, a surprise. Her hair color really shouldn’t be something to get so excited to have control over but I thought it would be nice. As for you, Eda,” once more the older Blight reached for her pocket, this time opening one of the smaller, side pockets in order to pull out two small, silver necklaces. One reading 'E +' the other '+ K.' Karen put her hand towards Eda, opening up her fingers and offering her the ‘E’ labeled necklace. Eda reached towards the other woman’s hands with hesitance and cautiously pulled the small object from her grasp, carrying it with the care one would give to a newborn baby as her fingers rubbed over the engraving “. Our cheesy, old friendship necklace,” Eda chuckled “, how did you find these?” Karen put her own necklace around her neck, blinking slowly as she looked at Eda with a smile as she responded “I never got rid of them. My parents did, whatever, with all our old photos so this was all I had left of us for the longest time.”   
Karen at some point, unbeknownst to either of the two, had stopped looking towards Eda during her rant and switched instead to staring at her own hands, twisting and manipulating her fingers over and over again in a failed attempt to calm her nerves. She really wasn’t sure what to expect at this point. Three decades of regret had just jumped out of her chest without control or restraint in place of an actual apology. Far more of a ‘woe is me’ pity fest honestly. Expecting that and some old necklace to repair something that had been left broken longer than most of Hexside’s had been alive was an immature fantasy at best, and a completely delusional, self-fulfilling excuse at worst.  
The unmistakable clinking of metal, however, tore Karen away from this thought process, looking over to her old friend placing the so-called “cheesy necklace” around her own neck, picking up the charm at the end in her palm once done. While the small smile on her face may have not shown it, the joy in Karen’s heart from that one simple action was about enough to make the old woman cry tears of joy. That didn’t quite feel appropriate just yet, though, so she did her best to keep her composure as she asked “So, does this mean-” ”I haven’t quite forgiven you yet,” Eda interjected, looking towards the Blight with the first look of genuine trust Karen had seen Eda give her in quite some time “, but as that Willow girl said, it’s a start. You got quite a ways to go though, Karry.” Despite that claim, the smile from not too long ago never left Eda's lips, a smile that Karen happily reciprocated “. I get it,” Karen eventually responded “, but, still, thank you dearly for allowing me another chance. Mayhaps, if you’re okay with it, we could go out and do something together sometime and catch up just a bit? What do you say?” While the general idea of the smile never left Eda’s face, the older one finally left her face, only to be replaced with a far more playful look that Karen knew all too well “. I think that could work. How about you and I grab a pair of pickaxes and chop apart a giant slug again, just like old times?” Eda drew her point home, bending her elbows and waving her arms back and forth as she waited for her friend's answer.  
Karen just chuckled before returning the favor with a similarly playful look “. I was thinking more like dinner so, yeah I think I’ll have to pass.” Eda dropped her arms after her friend’s answer, looking at her old companion with aging grandmama dog eyes as she claimed “Ah, fine, we’ll do your thing. You’re no fun anymore Karry. I mean hell you’re the one that taught me how to do the whole slug slaughter thing in the first place.” A claim that Karen quickly countered with “To stop us from getting eaten. Once! Yes. Honestly, Edalyn, I think the problem here is you’ve just gotten far more extreme.” The two allowed themselves to be doomed to yet another endless, laughing cycle with each other, said event eventually forcing Eda to collapse back into the couch, holding her forehead and stomach in place as the circle did what it did best.  
Through it all, Eda finally managed to snort out a question that had been swimming around in her head for a bit now “. Not that I really give two shits about what he thinks, but if we’re gonna be going doing all this, aren’t you worried about that asshat you call your husband finding out about all this?” Karen had to work at elongating her breathes to help calm her down to even make an attempt at answering her friend’s question. She somewhat managed to after a bit as she calmly stated in response “Well that’s actually just the thing, Edalyn. Chad and I, not too long ago now, decided to finalize our divorce papers.” Eda just turned to her friend with a Luz sized smile completely overtaking her face “. Really? Wow! How long?” Karen bent down and placed her chin in a thinker like position, comically looking to the side as she pretended to think deeply about the inquiry “. Oh, six or so months now I think,” finishing off her sentence with a cheeky smile directed at Eda “. Well shit. Took ya long enough. You know I could barely handle being near that guy for more than five minutes without wanting to punch that smug ass smile off his face. How did you handle it for so long?” Karen chuckled, choosing to go along with her friends teasing by quipping back “I honestly have no idea if I’m being completely honest with you.” Eda came back with "Well hey he’s gone now, that’s all that-wait!” The sudden cut off caught Karen off guard, quickly sending her back against the couch's solid frame, wide-eyed and staring at Eda “. Does that mean you have your maiden name back?” The question, as one could easily tell, filled the infamous Owl Lady up with a mountain of excitement as she stared her green-haired friend down, said friend in question placing her face down into her hands out of embarrassment ". Eda please,” she begged, not quite stifling the giggle that left her lips “. Good old Karen Lurkchop, Lurkchop the pork chop.” Eda was just forcibly cackling to herself at this point, maybe trying to prove to herself, her friend, or really anyone willing to humor her, that anything she just said was as funny as she wanted it to be. Karen looked at her friend with a joking look of impatience as she stated “No one in the boiling Isles but you even knows what a porkchop is Eda, and I seriously doubt that it’s quite as clever as you seem to think it is.”   
Though she tried to sound serious, seeing her friend trying so desperately to be funny, seeing her old friend be so comfortable around her after so many years of neglect, well, to put it simply, it lit Karen’s heart up. Pretty soon she was right there with Eda, hunched over laughing as she allowed herself, for what like the first time in years, to just let go. To let go and have some fun.


	3. Dinner Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eda and Karen nerviously prepare for their dinner time hang out, that is not a date, in an attempt to rekindle both an old friendship and, unexpectedly, some of the pair's old feelings.

Eda was standing in front of her old, musky mirror. Staring into her reflection as the lipstick slid across her old, pale lips, painting it in a couple of layers of a dark, understated red color as a final, last-minute touch to her attire for the upcoming night. Along with the lipstick, the infamous Owl Lady had also chosen to down the same old and tacky brown, uncle-style suit from the parent-teacher conference just a few days prior and, to help compliment the lipstick, dark, red eyeshadow that she swore she got from a stand that “may or may not be legal.”  
The details of her purchase she viewed as unimportant, however. Especially at that moment. That and trying to decide the legal morality of her purchase was really hard to think about with Luz bouncing around and surrounding Eda with questions about her plans with Karen that evening. But, honestly, Eda wouldn’t have it any other way. It was nice to have someone be so supportive and helpful of her choices, especially one that some may see as an utterly horrid idea with the whole “reconnecting with a Blight” and all that. It truly made Eda happy, to put so many feelings into so few words.  
That said, the elder witch couldn’t help but feel as if the kid had a bit of the wrong idea as to what the point of this whole affair was “. I can’t believe it!” the young Latina shouted as she sat on a nearby chair to watch her master prepare “, the mysterious Eda Clawthrone, one of the most powerful and closed off witches in all the Isles, going on a date with a notorious member of the accomplished Blight family. Perhaps, just maybe, out of some sort of desperate search for a love that can’t truly be.” The human finished off her speech by dramatically scrunching up and closing eyes with a closed fist held loosely to her chest to complement the slight forward tilt of her head. It managed a snicker out of Eda who didn’t even bother to hide it. Her kid’s little antics were pretty entertaining, all things considered. Still though.  
“It’s not a date, kid. It’s just two old bats who were sad and bored that together decided to head out for a night to try and pretend we aren’t getting old as shi-crap! Yeah. Alright? No icky romance involved.” Eda turned her head back towards the mirror to finish ruffling out the last few most prominent wrinkles in her suit. Luz’s only response at first was a pair of skeptical globes looking towards Eda with a smirk “. Oh Eda,” she began with just a slight tint of sass to her tone,” I’ve seen more than my fair share of romance films to know that this is a classic example of the enemies to lovers trope. Your interactions, once filled with closed fists and glares will instead now involve hand-holding and long, overdrawn kisses bursting with love.” All Eda could do at that point was roll her eyes, finishing up the last wrinkle of her attire before turning towards her apprentice with a kind but teasing smile “. I’m gonna be honest here, kiddo, I really don’t think your main source on how romance and life works should be network brand, romantic comedies. But, I guess to speak your language for just a moment, this would be far more like friends to enemies to lovers. This implies, though, that there’s even some form of romance involved in this whole situation, which, again, I repeat, there is not.”  
What was meant to be a way to end Luz’s teasing only seemed to fuel her ideas with how quickly the she shot up from her chair with a look of starstruck in her eyes “. You two were friends?” the human witch asked, her voice raspy from the lack of air she had forgotten to intake through all her excitement. This exact event happened about every other day, so Eda was more than used to it.  
Instead of railing back in surprise, the younger Clawthrone just looked at her apprentice with a fairly neutral gaze as she answered “Yeah. We had known each other since we were pretty darn little. How we became friends is a mystery to me since I was a baby and I’m already barely able to remember what I ate 20 minutes ago. But yeah, next to Lilly she was like my closest friend back in those days.” Eda began playing with her nails, trying her best to get them just right, so her apprentice’s sudden change in position to that of holding her own head in her hands and her hands on her lap went unnoticed until the older woman witch looked back up only to be met with Luz’s big old, brown eyes peering into Eda’s soul. The human finally managed to catch Eda off guard for the day as she fell back upon the ground, hair falling forward and creating a dark, gray-haired cave around her eyes that succeeded in blocking her vision. Eda spat her tongue out before breaking her hair apart to mumble out a long, drawn-out “Ow.”  
Luz’s features quickly caught fear and guilt as she rushed over to Eda, offering both a hand and an apology “. Oh my god! Eda are you okay? I’m so so so so sorry!” Eda, painfully, accepted the gesture, getting down on one of her knees to help make the process of easing back up much easier on her body after the fall. The Owl Lady placed her palms over her clothed back, pushing on it to crack it with an “Ack!” sprouting from her as a result. Once past that, she turned back towards Luz, waving a hand up playfully, trying to calm her student “. It’s fine, kid. Honest mistake. Plus I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do the exact same thing when I was your age. The difference here being you weren’t purposely trying to scare people onto their asses.”  
A small pause played for a moment before the two broke up in a short bout of laughter. They went on like that for a few seconds until Luz managed to get out of the pool of snickers and giggles with a question on her tongue “. Could you tell me a bit more? You know about you and Karen?” Eda didn’t react much to the question really. She just kept looking at herself in the mirror to fix small details about her outfit, though she quickly responded with a more upbeat and nostalgic voice than before as she recounted “Let’s see. Oh! Back when we were like 15. 14? Number! Neither one of us had a date to Grom, and Lily was off that night dancing with this chick she had the biggest crush on when she was young! I think her name was Penelope or somethin’? Eh, doesn’t matter. What matters is, while my sister was off being a gayass, me and Karen were just sitting in some lonely corner, depressingly far away from everyone else at the dance. But we had to keep that distance, because if we didn’t someone probably would’ve caught us tying couples’ shoes together with some spell Karen’s cousin had taught her.” ”Eda!!” Luz interjected “. We only did it to like 10 people! The joke got old after a while.” Luz leaned towards Eda more by less than an inch with an aura of disappointment so strong one could touch it “. How long did you gals do that?” ”Not the point. The point was that it. Was. Hysterical!” Eda let out a duo of laughs with the long lost memories quickly returning to her mind after a long, forgotten break.  
Luz simply just smiled at her mentor, closing her eyes with a shining smile “. It sounds like you two were pretty close back then,” the human commented, swaying her arms back and forth on ‘old days’ comment as she adopted a bad, old lady impression. Eda let her lips move upwards, though it could still be seen in her skin that there were traces of a more bittersweet feel to the words that soon followed “. Yeah.” A pause “. So what happened?” The human asked with   
care.  
Eda froze. Another pause. And another. The elder witch began to twirl around her fingers slowly, dragging across the dry skin to create a minor, white-ish scrape on her skin before turning over to do it again to another finger. Eda twisted her old dress shoes, resulting in a quiet, whispering squeak as she breathed out “. I can’t tell you, kiddo.” Luz looked to her mentor with worry in her movements and breaths “. Eda,” she began,” I won’t make you say anything you don’t want to but I really feel like you should know that you can trust me by now. I promise.”   
Every word the kid had just spoken reeked of genuine meaning and truthfulness. Luz knew it as did Eda. But as much as she wanted to tell the human everything that had led to the slow but assured destruction of her and Karen’s friendship, the situation just wasn’t that simple “. I know, kiddo, and thank you. But the issue isn’t about me not trusting you. The problem is the story isn’t entirely mine to tell. Karen’s parents were, well, they were something else, That’s all I’ll say. Honestly, our friendship was bound to end at one point or another. Surprised it didn’t happen sooner considering who they were. I’m surprised they didn’t just straight up kill me, heh.” Eda tried to chuckle at her own forced joke, desperate to find humor in a scenario that had very little “. Eda,” Luz asked, concerned,” are you alright.” Eda just looked back up to her kid, letting a small smile take shape, clearly trying to move past the subject at this point “. Yeah kid I’m fine. This was all years ago, anyways. Besides, me and Karen are reconnecting tonight anyways at a dinner that I’m late for.”  
…  
“Shit!” Eda slipped on her own foot as she rushed out the door, stumbling around and being forced to fearfully step back for a moment to grab her staff after missing it the first time round “. Love you, kid! Make sure to feed King and Hooty and if you see a body outside, hit it with a stick first just to make sure! Bye!” The Owl Lady shouted, slamming the front door. Her shouts became nothing more than a low pitched chirp by the time they managed to reach Luz’s ears “. Only two curses so far this afternoon,” she lamented “, a lot less than usual. Behavioral improvement, baby!”

A small foot, forcibly cramped into a bright, green, short heel shoe was having its front tap rapidly up and down. Small rocks and specks of the pavement spraying up each time the heel hit the ground. Its owner, a middle-aged woman with muted green hair, highly contrasting with her shoes and tied in a bun, was patiently and, more so, nervously awaiting the arrival of an old friend of hers. For the said friend, the elder Blight had worn a dark purple layer of lipstick, eyeshadow, and a dress adorned with frails of just a slightly lighter shade.  
Her friend was about five minutes late now and while to most people that may not seem like much, which, in reality, it really wasn’t, this would be the first time the two had gone out with each other in nearly thirty years. So, in Karen’s eyes, her fear was rather justified.  
Just as it seemed the Blight was on the verge of a full-on panic attack, a staff topped with an owl-shaped paliseman could be seen up in the nearby sky. Riding it was a gray-haired witch whose follicles and tacky suit were blowing as the wind twisted and waved around her form. Perhaps a little too much as upon landing a long, stray piece of hair whipped Eda in the eyes, blinding her just long enough to miss her flooring and tumble around on the ground, scraping and scratching up a suit that, luckily, was already used to such punishment. As was Eda.  
Karen, however, not aware of such facts, quickly rushed over to Eda “. Edalyn!” she shouted, pulling her dress in her palm to lift it up as she ran over to her friend, placing her hands under Eda’s arms to help her friend back up “, are you alright?” The suit-wearing witch dusted off her attire, a slight wince hitting her face upon rubbing a particularly rough scrape on her left arm. Quickly recovering, she looked towards her green-haired friend with the smuggest smirk in the world, readying her response “. Ha, please! I know it’s been a while but you should know it’ll take more than a what? Twenty-foot drop? To stop old Eda Clawthorne.”  
While she may have made some kind of effort to stop it, Karen couldn’t help but chuckle at Eda’s antics that effortlessly managed to bring her back to a much kinder, happier time in her young life “. You really haven’t changed, have you, Edalyn?” The responding witch just bent over, her smile someone looking even smug-er as she stared up at her friend “. Of course not! Now, is this the joint we’ll be eatin’ at tonight?” The Clawthrone asked the question while redirecting her attention towards the building to the side of the pair, a long, spleen, red-colored cement looking material being placed between two rows of boring, gray bricks and a blue tarp hung over the entrance that was written with so much cursive reading it was near impossible for anyone not living amongst the one percent of the one percent “. I’ll be honest. I was kinda hoping for like a burger joint or somethin.’ This looks like one of those fancy-schmancy, upper-class places that make you do things like bow to the waiters and use napkins.”   
While Karen had been enjoying Eda being Eda up until that moment, the dying few seconds of her sentence caused the upper-class woman some distress. Still funny though, she had to admit “. Eda,” Karen began,” do you not use napkins?” ”Eh, depends how I’m feeling that day. Right now, I’m feeling a strong no, so.” Karen just looked at her friend lovingly in response, her arm falling limp at her side in defeat. Her word choice was just so very, well, Eda. Karen loved it. It was nice being able to spend time with someone who she at one point, and maybe even now still, considered her best friend. Someone she didn’t need to keep up a super, upclass image around. Someone who, when she was near them, she could just let loose and have fun. Come to think of it. Why wasn’t she doing just that now?  
“Well color me surprised, Edalyn. Knowing you I’d have assumed you wouldn’t even know what a napkin is. Or you’d just think it’s some sort of flat, blank pastry.” Karen, embracing her upbringing, made the whole statement with an army of comedic arrogance attached to it. Everything from her voice to the way she condescendingly looked at her nails before gliding them towards her friend was all too much, so Eda broke. A strong series of laughs filled the next few moments with the sentence “Now that’s the Karry I know and love,” being formed in occasional chunks amongst it all. Karen, proud of herself for succeeding in making her friend laugh, let herself go and laughed along with the Owl Lady. A choice she gladly would’ve continued on with for a while if she hadn’t noticed they were scheduled to arrive for their reservation within just a couple of minutes.  
“Alright, Calamity. As much as I love standing here making fun of you, we do still have a reservation to get to. And these people will not hesitate to close our spot if we’re late.” Karen really didn’t think much about what she had just said until she looked at Eda, surprised to find a noticeable, light blush had grown on her pale face “. Calamity, huh?” Eda chuckled “, You haven’t called me that in a while.” Now it was Karen’s turn to be embarrassed. A pink spread on her face as she played around with the zipper on her purse. Before everything that had happened, Calamity was what the Blight woman had referred to her once best friend everytime the situation gave rise to the opportunity. Whether she was talking to or about her. While now that she thought more about it, she had mostly used the term when she had talked about Eda. A lot. A lot a lot. But once the two broke apart all that, along with so much else, was quickly sent to the grave and left to die a death that never came. Karen hadn’t been thinking when she had said it, but now she was worried. What if Eda didn’t like or wish to return to such memories that may or may not be attached to that name. Then again they were eating out. Platonically! And that didn’t seem to be causing much trouble. Still though “. It’s alright if I call you that, right?” Eda seemed a bit confused for a bit but quickly switched to her default mode of teasing pretty quickly before she responded “Of course. It’s both cute and insulting! Your nickname is making fun of me! It’s rude! I turned a Blight into a rude ass bitch! Score one for Eda!”  
Karen chuckled. A swear, quiet, loving chuckle “. Alright, alright. One point for you, you overgrown child. Now can we go eat?”

Eda and Karen were sat at a table in the far back corner of the restaurant, Eda making whatever jab she could come up with for any passerby waiter or customer and Karen, having given up hiding that side of her at this point, openly laughing at each sly remark.  
Eventually, Eda had decided to order a plate of gargoyle tongue because she thought it sounded like it would either be cool or dangerous. Preferably the latter. Karen ordered a simple plate of slug noodles, cooked light, and covered in beetle sauce for an extra kick of flavor to the mostly lifeless feel the rest of the meal had.  
Once they had their food ordered, the two friends fell into a bit of an uncomfortable silence, neither knowing where to begin nor what to talk about. Each word, chuckle, and joke from the tables around them gradually becomes a painful mockery of their own lack of an ability to make conversation. They were barely even looking at each other. The two, for the most part, just darted their eyes here and there in whatever random direction their minds decided on in the spur of the moment. Every once and awhile the two met each other, eyes locked, staring awkwardly before almost immediately looking away, waiting off the resulting blushes before continuing on with the same tired formula.  
This went on for about ten minutes until an idea sprouted in Eda’s head. For the first time since they entered the building, the Owl Lady went out of her way to look at her friend, smiling smugly as she said “Hey Karry, watch this.’ The green-haired witch’s attention had been caught, her gaze moving towards her friend. Eda was pointing in the direction of some older looking couple. Karen directed her attention back towards her friend just as she finished up a spell circle. Looking back to the couple, Karen’s pupils shot up in size as she saw the soup they were both eating suddenly shot out of the bowl, covering them both in what seemed to be a cold, red liquid, which was now dripping down and staining the pair’s designer clothes “Edalyn,” Karen cried, though she didn’t even bother to hide the small giggle or two that the prank had gotten from her.  
Those pair of giggles brought Eda back to a time she hadn’t thought about in a while, feelings she hadn’t thought about in a while. The most prevalent of which at the moment was how happy hearing that classic one-two giggle punch made Eda. Which for better or worse, encouraged her to keep going.  
“Shh! Shh!” The gray hair woman hushed through her own couple of laughs “Wait until you see this.” Moving her hand around for yet another circle, the older pair waited a few moments until a shaking could be heard from another nearby table containing another older looking couple. To be more specific on the origin of the sound, it was coming from the man’s large bowl, shaking and rumbling around for several moments until a large, seemingly friendly, venus-flytrap-looking plant monster sprouted out from it. It grabbed the man with its leaves like arms and pulled him in for a deep, slobbery kiss on the cheek before immediately disappearing back into the aforementioned bowl.  
That just about did it for Eda and Karen who just completely broke out into deep, heavy laughs that left the both of them gasping for air. A state they remained stuck in, completely self-centered into their own little world of destructive comedy until a waiter came by, slamming his hands down on the table and snapping the two out of it. The man in question looked absolutely furious and, despite his skin already being red, one could still see a heavy blush formed from his anger.  
“Shit,” Eda cussed.

“And stay out!” The waiter shouted that phrase out after quite literally chasing Eda and Karen around with a broom for anywhere between five minutes to half an hour. Which despite the pair of witches in question having hoped they were both still in top tier condition, the two had to admit that that little mini-marathon had taken a lot out of them. So there they were. Hunched over, out of breath, and gasping for anything even resembling air. That was until Eda suddenly broke out once again into laughter. While confused at first, once Karen really looked back and thought about the situation, the goldmine of humor the whole thing offered revealed itself and, before she knew it, Karen was laughing just as hard.  
Though still laughing, the pair began walking in the opposite direction of the restaurant, with Eda, in particular, wishing to start up yet another conversation “. Man! Just like old times! Huh, Karry?” She looked towards her green-haired friend, a smile that hid nothing and instead just showed pure happiness and glee about the whole situation. Karen, after a moment of struggle trying to recollect herself, managed to respond with “Yeah,” and as simple and to the point, as that interaction may have seemed on the surface, Eda wasn’t quite done yet “. I mean really, I didn’t think someone like you had it in ya. I thought for sure you’d stop me from doing anything at just the thought of what I might do. But no! Ms. Lurkchop, with her cabbage looking hair went along with the whole thing. And loved it!” Eda increased the point of her statements by lightly poking at Karen’s stomach which earned her some adorable, illegally cute giggles from said witch “ Edalyn, my old friend,” Karen began “, I can’t help feel as if you’re underrating my own antics and pranks from back in the day. I hope you don’t think you were a one-woman crew now.” Karen stopped in her place, sliding her heel forward just a bit before dragging it back to add an extra layer of tease to something that was already reeking just that “. Oh, I know,” Eda responded with a look containing just as much self-satisfaction “, but it’s been a while. Plus, you were a stinky Blight for a good bit. You can’t blame for having some level of doubt on whether you still had that edge to ya.” Karen had, and was still, trying to remain composed with her teasing. But that smile of utter confidence on Eda’s face made it a challenge to not embrace the feelings that fueled her old, Highschool crush on the girl before her and kiss her on the spot. If she wanted to survive, she’d have to end this soon. So “. Touché my friend.”  
The two walked in comfortable silence for the first time in years, side by side, hands very, very close. Karen’s in particular getting much, much sweatier than they were just a few moments ago. She was about to start going over things in her mind to help calm her gay thoughts, but before she could even attempt just an impossible goal, Eda spoke “. I forgive you.”   
Three words. Three such simple words and yet their mere utterance from Eda to Karen made the latter witch feel like crying from pure, unadulterated joy. Despite such feelings, the swirling storm in her head left her with no other response than “What.” Both Eda and Karen stopped in their tracks, the gray-haired part of the pair turning her head to, unsurprisingly, find her friend already staring at her “. I said I forgive you.” She said without a hint of hesitation “. Everything you’ve told me and shown me the last few days. Well. It showed me that the Karry I once knew is finally coming back. Maybe she never left? I don’t know. But you’re my friend, Karen, my best friend, and I really can’t tell you how happy it makes me to know that whatever system you and your kids got stuck in, against all odds, you managed to escape from. Because it shows me that Karen Lurkchop wasn’t all gone. So, as long as you’re still willing to, I want to give us a try again.”  
Eda held out her hand with one of the softest smiles Karen had ever seen her wear. Eda’s words. Her trust. Her love. It was all so much for Karen that a simple handshake just wouldn’t do. Without much warning, Karen threw her arms around the Owl Lady, squeezing her with an amount of force that only managed to convey a small fraction of the feelings she was experiencing in that moment. Feelings that were only increased when the receiving witch wrapped her arms around her friend’s body in return, holding onto Karen as her head slowly fell into Eda’s shoulder “. I’ll take that as a yes then,” Eda said with a chuckle that her friend soon copied.  
Karen soon after, removed her head from Eda’s shoulder. Looking into her eyes with an unflattering yet happy smile on her face. Eda didn’t think she had seen Karen look more beautiful than she did here, just inches away from her face. The Owl Lady saw a stray piece of green-haired sprouting its way out of Karen’s main puff of hers to instead lay softly on her cheek, shifting slightly with each mild move of Karen’s head. Eda slowly raised her left hand to pinch the stray hair between her thumb and pointer finger. Watching her own hands’ path as she moved the hair back, tuffing it behind the Blight’s ear. As she looked back to her friend’s face, she was happy to see Karen consumed by a deep, deep blush “. Um,” she tried to begin before Eda quickly interrupted “. Remember how I used to do that all the time back in Hexside?” Karen, throat dry and thoughts bouncing to and fro in her mind, stumbled out a short response of “Yeah.” Eda just smiled, continuing on “. You’d always get the biggest blush on your face whenever I did it. Now I know where Amity gets that whole tomato face gene from!” That sentence finally seemed to be the final piece of motivation Karen needed as she broke out of being a blushing mess, readying herself for her turn at teasing “. So did you, don’t act like you were any better. You could barely speak the word ‘a’ after pulling that stunt!” ”Not the point!” Eda responded yelling in a very hushed way “. The point is. I missed this. A lot.” Karen was left once more a blushing mess, Eda not being too much better “. So did I,” Karen said smiling.  
The two stood there awkwardly for a few moments, for the second time that night glancing around at everything around them but each other. But for a bit of a change in that night’s pattern, Karen was the first to speak up “. Well, it’s getting kind of late now. I think I ought to be heading home.” Eda just nodded in agreement, slowly placing her pale hands into her suit’s old pockets “. Yeah. I’ll see you around, Karry.” Karen, who had already begun walking a couple steps away, turned back to Eda to close off the night with “. Thank you. Love you, Eda.” The Owl Lady smirked “. Love you too.”

Eda opened up the door of the Owl House, slowly closing it with her back turned towards the damn thing. She paid little attention to her student who had quickly noticed her mentor’s entrance and was wearing a huge smile bearing all her excitement to hear about Eda’s date “. So,” the human began “, how was it?” Eda dragged her pupils over to the place on the couch that her kid was sat upon. Smacking her lips a couple of times before answering “. Yeah,” she said slowly,” so. I’m gay as fuck.”


End file.
